Jaburo Fire & Ice
by GM ace
Summary: Amongst the carnage of the Jaburo drop operation, as mobile suits shatter and good men die, Karl Tirpitz of Zeon and James Ennis of the the Federation clash in a fight to the death.


**The characters and events depicted here are based on the MSG: OYW RPG that took place at s8. for most of 2007. All characters/groups are the property of their respective creators. Some events have been changed for the sake of the story. Specifically, Karl Tirptiz is the intellectual property of CYNICISM AT IT'S BEST and James Ennis is the intellectual property of GM ace. Thank you, and enjoy the story! **

Jaburo is the very heart of the Federation's military might. In the great conflict laying waste to the Earth Sphere, Jaburo might well stand as the only fortress that can take Zeon's best shot and come up standing. But today, there could be no certainty behind such claims, only false bravado. Even the staunchest of the Federation's soldiers wonder if Jaburo might fall this day, with the defenses breached and the spacenoids swarming inside. Even as they wonder that, another RGM-79 GM crumples to the ground, its shattered limbs smoldering from the heat of particle beam attacks. The pilot, a young rookie fresh to combat, signals to his leader for help to rescue him from the combat zone.

"Dammit! Bluesummers, get Eddy out of here and hurry back as fast as you can! Go!"

Bluesummers, the pilot of another GM, rushed over and managed to evacuate the fallen Eddy from the combat zone. The man giving the orders, Lt. Commander James T. Ennis, pilot of a GM Command, stepped into the gap left by the downed GM. He had to step over the mangled wrecks of an entire squad of GM Commands, all victims of the enemy facing him. The Z'Gok, an amphibious mobile suit of the Principality, stood resolute with a paint scheme as black as night. For a moment Ennis thought back to earlier missions in Europe, of his friend Ryan Steiner's private mission to destroy a black-garbed enemy prototype. Ryan had succeeded, with difficulty, but the enemy pilot had survived.

"So, looking at your paint scheme I'd say you're the man they sent Ryan after? How about going after someone who isn't a rookie?" Ennis yelled over the radio, raising his rifle and firing.

James Ennis, officer of the Earth Federation Forces, CO of the Snowball Mobile Suit Team. Veteran of Side 4, Loum, British, Cactus and Helion, Seattle, Hotel California, and Odessa. Spent most of the war flying an FF-S3 fighter until a few months ago, when he inherited the GM Command from a dead man at California. Born to Tomas and Mary Ennis, 24 years old, the first of his family to join the military, a career officer who loves to fly.

The basic facts do not tell the truth about the man. James Ennis is, above all else, a man fueled by his emotions. He uses logic and common sense, yes, but usually just to justify his gut feelings to others. He feels, and he feels deeply. And what he has felt for the past almost-year is anger and hatred. The war has changed him; the carnage he has seen and the people he has lost have given birth to the anger, and it has fueled him in his crusade of vengeance. It had started to ebb recently, as he grew close to his fellow pilots again. But now, fresh from the loss of another friend in Europe and faced with his enemies, the wound has opened again and the anger flows freely. Again it fuels him, like a raging fire.

Commander Karl Tirpitz, piloting a black Z'Gok, steps away from the shatter corpse of a GM. The pilot had possessed some modicum of skill, and Karl had freely told him so, but had lacked the experience necessary to compete with the Commander. Karl had spared the pilot, defying the young man's expectations. No need to kill a man who poses no threat.

Suddenly a GM Command, like the squad Karl had easily wiped out mere minutes before, charged over the wreckage, its pilot challenging him to face someone who wasn't a rookie. He mentioned Steiner. The Gundam pilot he had fought against in Europe. This pilot might be a member of the same team as Steiner. Karl dodged the initial attack, jumping his suit to the side and coming down on the ground with a crunch.

"Yeah, that was me," he replied, admitting to being the pilot that had haunted Steiner. The Zeon Commander began charging his beam weapons, gesturing towards the fallen Gm with one claw. "You say you're better than him. Good. You better be."

With that the black Z'Gok lunged forward, charging towards the Federal mobile suit and its pilot.

Karl Tirptiz, officer of the Principality of Zeon, leader of the special operations team called the Reapers. He became an ace in his first battle at Loum, worked hard to build Solomon into a mighty fortress, and played a part in successfully repulsing the Federation's attempt to retake California. He acted as a test pilot in combat, fighting in the defense of Odessa, valiantly if futilely. Has led the Reapers through the cauldron of battle again and again, remaining steadfast despite recent defeats and heavy losses. A 23 year old hard working man from a family of hard workers, including a history of military service. Loyal, friendly, intelligent, commanding, and almost fearless if not for a severe dislike of flying.

For all that he dislikes the Federation, Karl does not possess the emotional zealotry common among Zeonic soldiers or the Zabi rulers. He does not hate, but instead holds a simple desire to protect his home from an obvious threat. For all that he is in the military, he does not stick to regulations. He defies superiors, fraternizes with the daughters of base commanders, drinks, and smokes marijuana while on duty. And for all that he is stuck in the middle of the bloodiest war in human history, he does not let it faze him. He has kept a cool head even as Odessa fell, even as he bailed out of a wrecked suit, even as men and women died around him. The horrors of war have not scarred him, as they have Ennis. He remains intact, an unmarred piece of ice to Ennis's unquenchable fire.

These two men could not be more different. Their mindsets and goals are polar opposites of one another. One is full of anger while the other is calm and sure. One wants vengeance, the other safety for his home. Even physically they are different, the Zeon Commander towering over and outweighing the short, scrawny Federal pilot, the Feddie's short hair looking almost bleached compared to the loose, long hair of the Zeke. They could not be more different. Perhaps it is appropriate, then, that they are facing on another on the field of battle. Feddie and Zeke, fire and ice, both struggling to kill the other.

The two suits passed one another, the Command's machine gun spitting bullets that the Z'Gok managed to keep ahead of. Ennis kept his distance, not wishing to get too close to a machine carrying beam weaponry. He'd seen enough of what that kind of armament could do to want to avoid getting hit by it. He turned up the heat, adding his Vulcan guns to the onslaught as he tried to blast his target.

Karl changed tack as several rounds landed home in the head area of his suit. He realized that this pilot WAS better than the rookie he'd just faced, and would require an entirely different level of skill to defeat. However, he remained confident; he had better weaponry and armor than the Feddie. The Command was attempting to circle him, so Karl cut inside the circle and tried closing in, jinking back and forth to avoid fire. He raised one clawed arm and fired a burst to shake the Federal pilot up.

Ennis cursed, his machine ducking as beam fire stabbed into the ground next to him. The earth exploded upwards, showering him in rubble and dust, and he began backing up. He drew a beam saber with his shield hand, keeping it deactivated as he raised the shield to protect himself. He lowered his aim from Z'Gok's torso and instead fired a burst at the hips, trying to foul the joints and slow the larger suit down. He cursed again as the 90mm rounds were deflected by the heavy armor

"Too much armor man, you'll need to do better than that!" Karl mocked over the radio. Again the beam weapons charged, and again Karl fired, but this time he deliberately aimed for the ground. The South American earth shattered under the barrage easily, enveloping the GM Command in a cloud of dust. Hoping to take advantage of the GM's crippled visibility, he charged forward, killing claws outstretched to tear the Federal machine to shreds when he met it.

Ennis flicked his head as his visibility was reduced to a few mere meters by the dust, shaking sweat out of eyes.

"Well, things are getting a bit excited around here, aren't they?" he said back to the Zeke as he stowed his rifle on his hip armor. He drew his second beam saber and ignited it. The Zeke would be coming for him, he knew. Wouldn't going to meet him be the polite thing to do? Ennis fired his thrusters and flew through the cloud of dust, shield covering his body and saber outstretched in a thrust.

The first thing Karl saw was the pink glow of the saber as it plunged through the dust. An intimate relationship with a beam saber was the LAST thing he wanted, so he jumped to the side and out of the cloud, the two suits passing each other like jousters who had had second thoughts about the idea. Karl whirled as he landed, snapping off a beam shot at where he thought the Command would land.

Ennis knew that he would be vulnerable as he landed and he expected an attack, but there were few conventional techniques that would work fast enough to save him in that event. Thankfully, he was hardly a conventional man. He twisted his suit, and it dropped to the ground sharper that usual. It was moving sideways, so when the side of his right foot hit the ground he basically tripped, his suit being flung out of the path of the beam meant to kill him. But there were downsides to the maneuver.

Ennis kept his mouth closed so he couldn't bite his tongue as the GM Command slammed into a building. At that high speed, the mobile suit punched straight through the unlucky architecture to slam into the side of the building across the street before stopping. Ennis was flung around so hard in his seat that he was sure that the harness would leave bruises, and his helmet was the only thing saving him from a concussion. But he had dodged the attack, and the dust thrown up by the now-imploding building gave him cover. He pushed his suit off of the second building and began dashing down Jaburo's back roads.

Karl wasn't happy when he saw the Feddie slam into a building yet not emerge again. No way would a pilot like this let one building slow him down. And now he had the advantage of concealment.

"Shit, using the damn dust, where are you?" he muttered to himself, trying to use heat sensors to find the enemy.

The enemy was now on Karl's left flank, crouching behind several more buildings. Ennis considered using the thrusters to again close with the Z'Gok as fast as possible, but he had a problem the enemy couldn't know about. Earlier in the fight for Jaburo the GM Command had taken damage which had affected the thrusters. They were only good for a few more short bursts, lest he push them too far and risk destroying himself. Against this guy, Ennis decided he would rather save those bursts for when he really needed them. So the GM Command leapt up and charged in on foot. His saber swung horizontally from to left to right, and as soon as the blade was clear Ennis maneuvered into a shield bash.

However, the heat sensors Karl was using alerted him to the incoming beam saber just in time, and he spun to face his opponent. Not without harm, though. One three-clawed arm became two-clawed as a gleaming shard of the claw spun away, sliced off by the saber. And the shield slammed fully into the torso, pushing the Z'Gok back several meters and rattling Karl in his cockpit. But here the construction of the Z'Gok served him well. Unlike the GM, which had to physically exchange weapons with its manipulator hands, the Z'Gok's long range and short range weaponry were both built in to the same appendages.

"Hard to dodge when you're this close, buddy!" he yelled, simply raising his right arm and fire a beam at the shield at point-blank range.

Ennis screamed as the top half of his shield was blasted away, essentially ending its use as a defensive weapon. His left arm was only spared by the angle of the shot, which sent the beam past the appendage and slamming into a building behind him. Ennis swung his left arm, detaching what was left of the shield and letting it fly towards the Z'Gok. The beam saber he'd been holding in his left hand ignited, and Ennis waded in with his blades.

Karl, part surprised and part impressed at the counterattack, slapped the shield wreckage away and waded in himself. The GM Command's right blade came at him in a thrust; Karl dodged to his own right and caught the enemy's arm under his own, pinning it. The Command's left arm raised its blades and slashed down and across; the Z'Gok's right arm blocked the Feddie's own arm and twisted around it, pinning that one too.

There the two mobile suits stood, so close that if they were men they would be able to smell one another's breath. The GM's arms were pinned to the side of the Z'Gok's torso by the MSM's arms, unable to wrench them free. Karl took a deep breath, calming himself. Ennis gritted his teeth, mind struggling to find some way to break free and attack his foe.

"Looks like we have an impasse, here," Karl said matter-of-factly. "Well? What happens now? Personally I don't think this is where either of us are meant to die." Karl had a gut feeling, for some reason, that neither pilot would be able to kill the other. They had certainly failed to do much harm to one another so far. Perhaps they were just too even.

Ennis disagreed vehemently, as his anger flared and a plan formed.

"You're going to die right here, Zeke scum, and I'm going to be the one to do it!" he screamed as he fired his thrusters one last time. One last time because halfway through the maneuver the thrusters cut out automatically due to safety features. But the GM Command still rose up and body slammed the larger suit with a screech of metal, starting to topple the Z'Gok backwards. Even as his suit fell back and the GM began wrenching himself free, Karl countered by raising his right leg and kicking out at the GM's hips.

The Z'Gok slammed to the ground on its back, but even as the earth cracked underneath it the GM Command went flying, flipping to land on its back and skid down a street with a shower of sparks being thrown up from the pavement. Sparks flew inside the cockpit as well, as several delicate pieces of equipment shattered under the strain. The beam saber in his left hand was knocked loose and skittered away. Ennis bit down a yell as at least one shard of glass slashed across his leg. But he stayed focused and grabbed his rifle off his hip armor and fired back at the Z'Gok from a prone position. Karl had flipped his suit and had begun pushing himself up off the ground, but he had to fling himself sideways to the ground again to avoid the shots. That gave Ennis a chance to pick up his battered suit and slip into the maze of buildings near where they had been fighting.

Ducking his GM Command between two buildings, Ennis paused for a moment after stowing his remaining beam saber. He ripped open his first aid kit and yanked out some gear. The wound on his leg didn't look too deep, and the shard that had hit him hadn't stuck in him, so he put some antiseptic spray and slapped a bandage on the wound. He considered injecting a pain killer, but passed on it; being doped up during combat didn't appeal to him one bit, assurances of the medics aside. That done, he ejected the almost empty magazine in his rifle and let it tumble to the ground, slamming home a fresh one, and began making his way back towards the Z'Gok's position.

Karl, too, had picked himself up and checked to make sure that he could continue the fight. He could, but he had other concerns. When he had engaged this GM Command his unit, the Reapers, had been all around him fighting the Federal unit the GM was from. But now the battle had moved on. There were a few more shattered suits littering the landscape, but the Reapers and the Federation SpecOps team had apparently chased one another further into the caves. He needed to hurry up and-

The Z'Gok rocked as three 90mm rounds slammed into its flank, denting the armor. Karl whirled to face the attacker, but all that faced back at him were empty buildings. The damn Feddie was using hit-and-fade tactics. Karl quickly scanned back and forth, switching between different sensors to try to detect movement, heat, anything that would give the GM Command away. Instead another two rounds slammed into his back, and he was forced to throw out a leg to stop himself from falling forward. The Federal ace was on home territory; he could fight this kind of battle all day while Karl's team was somewhere out there without their commander.

"Stop playing games, Feddie. Fight me or go away," he said. Karl turned and began firing his beam guns again and again, tearing buildings apart trying to smoke out the GM.

Ennis, hunkered down a fair distance from Karl's current targets, let out a low whistle as the destruction.

"What's the matter, Zeke?" he replied to the Reaper commander. "Don't want to fight a target that isn't a helpless rookie or a defenseless colony? Superior race my ass. More like the more cowardly one."

"Hey, I never had anything to do with what happened to the colonies, alright?" Karl replied. He stopped his barrage and switched to thermal sensors again, hoping to get lucky as he talked. "And I don't believe in that superior race crap either, just in protecting my home." There, a small deviation in the sensor readings. Karl smiled to himself. "Come out little mouse," he said, charging forward.

Ennis's eyes widened when he heard the grin in the Zeke's voice and knew that he had been discovered. He leapt up into a street and fired a three-round burst at the Zeke as he began backing down the street.

"You wear the uniform and follow their orders, that's enough for me!" he yelled at his opponent. "Even if a man doesn't fire the gun, he has no right to stand next to the man doing it and do nothing to stop him!"

Karl smiled, even as a round struck his left arm's elbow, smashing the joint and leaving the arm to hang useless.

"The Federation fired just as many nukes as we did, you know that. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to take credit for the sins of others. This is just you and me right now," he said. Karl was actually enjoying this. The Feddie was a challenge, giving him a real fight. Not some rookie with more balls than brains. Not the unbeatable odds at Odessa. Straight up one on one, best man walks away. It's what made the war interesting, that kind of challenge. "Come on, Feddie!"

The Z'Gok's right arm rose and spat deadly energy, and it found its target. The GM Command's head was blown off its neck, the delicate systems inside melted and vaporized even as the suit continued backpedaling. Ennis cursed as his monitors flickered as they began switching to the backups, but he had no time. He grabbed for his beam saber with his left arm and lashed out at the buildings to his side. One of them was slashed almost halfway through and tumbled down into the street, intercepting a second beam fired by the Z'Gok that Ennis would never have seen coming in time.

Karl fired his main thrusters and leapt above the resulting dust cloud but had to fire his maneuvering thrusters again to avoid the burst of 90 mike-mike fired at him. Apparently the Feddie's cameras were working again. The dodging gave the Feddie enough time to duck behind a building by the time Karl touched ground again. Brandishing his working arm, Karl advanced. Just as he neared the building, a sliver of pink energy seemed to move across it horizontally. For a moment Karl didn't understand, until the part of the building above the line the pink light had traced being to fall towards him.

Ennis grunted as he slammed his machine's shoulder into the building. With enough force and luck, the 'decapitated' building would topple right over and land on the damn black Z'Gok.

Karl cursed and fired his right arm's beam weapon once, twice, thrice, into the building falling towards him. All that did was transform a falling building into a falling pile of rubble. He fired his thrusters again and leapt backwards, barely making it out before the whole mess came crashing down into the ground.

The two suits remained still as the dust settled, revealing the black Z'Gok standing in the road with its only working arm brandished, and the headless GM Command holding its beam saber in a neutral position. The opponents stared across the rubble at one another. Karl idly wondered what would happen know; both suits were low on ammo and energy, had taken damage to vital systems, and were without support. Ennis wondered how he could get to the Z'Gok and kill it without being blasted to atoms by its beam weaponry. Perhaps if he could just get around to its weak side-

"To anyone who can hear this... status report on your front..."

Ennis glanced down at his radio. He answered the call of his fellow Federal pilot, and was informed that he was needed elsewhere. Ryan and the others were trying to consolidate the team again, to rally their full remaining strength against their opponents. Ennis gritted his teeth, but as much as he wanted to finish the Zeke in the black suit he knew he had a responsibility to help his comrades and subordinates first. He took one step back, wary of a move from the Z'Gok. But to his surprise, the Z'Gok straightened from its crouch and turned away, walking away from the duel.

"I'd love to stay and play, but I really do have better things to do. Take care of yourself, Feddie. It's been fun, and I'd hate to see you killed before we get a chance to fight again," Karl said, smiling. His troops had called him as well; they were rallying together to try to make a final push further into Jaburo. Between his troops and the fight, there was no choice at all for him, no difficulty.

"Oh, don't you worry, Zeke! I'll be more than ready to take you down the next time we meet," Ennis yelled back.

"Glad to hear it," was the only reply, before the Z'Gok's thrusters fired and the MSM flew off through the caves. Ennis sighed, wiping his forehead. All that, for just one suit, and it hadn't even ended in a kill. This was going to be a long day. The GM Command turned and began running towards the sound of fresh combat.

The fire failed to melt the ice, the ice failed to cool the fire. Karl was right, neither man was destined to die there. But who could say for sure that he or Ennis wouldn't perish down the road? Ice can be just as dangerous as fire, and fire consumes all it touches, and it looks to be a long war yet.


End file.
